Outsports has received a special recognition award from GLAAD for its coverage of the record number of out LGBTQ athletes at the Tokyo Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

In announcing its nominees for the 33rd GLAAD Media Awards, Outsports and seven others were awarded special recognition.

Each year, GLAAD presents non-competitive Special Recognition Awards to media projects that do not fit into one of the existing GLAAD Media Awards categories. For the 33rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards, GLAAD is presenting Special Recognition honors to eight media projects that spotlighted diverse segments of the LGBTQ community in innovative ways.

The eight media projects include: All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson [filmed reading + performance]; “Alok Vaid-Menon” 4D with Demi Lovato (Candence13/OBB Sound/SB Projects); CODED: The Hidden Love of J.C. Leyendecker (Paramount+); Jeopardy! Champion Amy Schneider; The Laverne Cox Show (Shondaland Audio/iHeartMedia); Life Out Loud with LZ Granderson (ABC News); Outsports’ Coverage of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics; and “Celebrando el Mes del Orgullo” (Telemundo).

Outsports’ coverage of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics was instrumental in sparking international media coverage of the record number of out LGBTQ Olympians at the Games. In addition to spotlighting and profiling the successes and triumphs of various LGBTQ Olympians, Outsports was the first outlet to create a full list of out athletes participating at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics (“Team LGBTQ”), which was widely cited by mainstream media outlets and brought conversations about the significance of LGBTQ inclusion in sports to a global scale.

Outsports published 170 articles before, during and after the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics highlighting the record number of out LGBTQ Olympians. Our list of out Olympic athletes was cited by media worldwide and was so popular that several LGBTQ Olympians not on the original list wrote us from Tokyo asking to be included. After the Games, we published the full medal table for Team LGBTQ, whose 33 medals (11 gold, 13 silver and nine bronze) would have ranked seventh had it been its own country.

Outsports coverage was written and produced by Brian C. Bell, Jim Buzinski, Darius Gilchrist, Alex Reimer, Ken Schultz, Karleigh Webb, Shelby Weldon and Cyd Zeigler, along with Olympic historian Tony Scupham-Bilton, who was invaluable in compiling the list of out athletes. Buzinski and Zeigler founded Outsports in 1999 and in 2011 the site was purchased by Vox Media.

You can find the full list of GLAAD Media Awards nominees here.

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